30 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



mutual aid society^ known as "{In the) Good Rule they assist one 

 another/' Gai'wiu 0"dannide'osha, (Sen). This society chooses a 

 matron of the cornfields, eti'gowane, who inspects the individual 

 fields or gets reports regarding their progress and who orders the 

 rest of the band to go to the field she wishes cultivated at a certain 

 day and hour. She commences the hoeing and ranges her helpers in 

 equal numbers on either side and a little to the rear and hoes to the 

 end of the row a little in advance of the rest, counts off the unihoed 

 rows and takes her position again. 



1 Roger Williams in his Key notes this custom among the New England 

 Algonquins. " When a field Is to be broken up," he says, " they have a very 

 loving, sociable, speedy way to dispatch it; all the neighbors, men and 

 women, forty, fifty or a hundred, do joyne and come in to help freely with 

 friendly joyning they break up their fields and build their forts." 



"As an organized body of workers, the women of each gens formed a 

 distinct agricultural corporation." Stites, Sara H. Economics of the Iro- 

 quois, p. 31, Bryn Mawr Col. Monographs v. i, no. 3. 



In Seaver's Life of Mary Jemison [see p. 70-71] we find a detailed de- 

 scription of this cooperative work: 



" We pursued our farming business according to the general custom of 

 Indian women, which is as follows : In order to expedite their business, 

 and at the same time enjoy each other's company, they all work together 

 in one field, or at whatever job they have at hand. In the spring they 

 choose an old active squaw to be their driver and overseer, when at labor 

 for the ensuing year. She accepts the honor and they consider themselves 

 bound to obey her. 



When the time for planting arrives and the soil is prepared, the squaws 

 are assembled in the morning and conducted into a field where each one 

 plants a row. They then go into the next field and plant once across and 

 so on until they have gone through the tribe. If any remains to be planted, 

 they again commence where they did at first (in the same field) and so keep 

 on till the whole is finished. By this rule, they perform their labor of 

 every kind and every jealousy of one having done more or less than another 

 is effectually avoided." 



This custom of helping is continued to this day. Among the Christian 

 Iroquois such work is called a " bee " but among the followers of the old 

 ways the mutual aid societies still exist and they continue " in the good rule 

 (gai'wiu) to assist one another." A. C. P. 



Compare also Lawson's Carolina, page 179. " They are very kind and 

 charitable to one another, but more especially to those of their own Nation 

 . . . The same assistance they give to any Man that wants to build a 

 Cabin, or make a Canoe. They say it is our Duty, thus to do ; for there are 

 several Works that one Man can not effect, therefore we must give him our 

 Help, otherwise our Society will Hll, and we shall be deprived of those 

 urgent Necessities which Life requires." 



Cf. Adair, p. 407. 



Cf. CuUen. Clavigero's Mexico. 



